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Newport City Loses Former Mayor and City Manager, and Friend

Kenneth W. Magoon, 74, beloved husband of Judy Magoon, passed away on Friday, August 26, 2011 in Lebanon, NH, after a long illness. He was born on October 16, 1936, in Newport, VT, to Guy and Ester (Geer) Magoon. He graduated from Newport High School in 1955 and entered the Air Force shortly after for a four-year enlistment including spending a year in Japan. After leaving the service, he joined the securities firm of Harris, Upham and Company, Inc. of Boston. He married Judith Hill in 1960. In 1971 he worked for Meddendorff, Colgate and Co., also located in Boston. Ken and Judy Magoon moved back to Vermont in 1973 and he started working at Butterfields as an accountant and personnel manager and eventually for Tivoly, from which he retired. Ken was also a former member and past president of the Border J.C.’s and former member of the Newport Elk’s Club.He served the City of Newport as alderman from 1976-1980 and also as police commissioner and mayor from 1980-1982 and as city manager from 1995-1999. It was during these years that both the waste treatment plant and the fire station were built. Ken was also very involved in MSA coming to Newport for a couple of years, which turned out to be a very big asset to the area. He also served as a side judge.Ken and Judy traveled to North Carolina several times to see their son and family and enjoyed stopping at the beaches up and down the coast. They also owned a cottage on Cousin’s Beach for over 10 years and in general loved Vermont and the Newport area for all it had to offer. He also enjoyed riding his ATV and Kabota.He will be missed by the guys he met at lunch time at the Short Stop several days a week. But first and foremost, he was a family man who loved and enjoyed the many, many times they spent together.Besides his wife Judy Magoon of Newport, he is survived by two sons: Ronald Magoon and his wife Arlene of Amherst, NH, and Barrett (Barry) Magoon and his wife Mary of Fuquay Varina, North Carolina, by his grandchildren: Chrysann Magoon of New Hampshire, Caitlyn Folia and her husband Eric of New Hampshire, Marcel and his wife Dot Chaput of Michigan, Jordan and Bailey Magoon of North Carolina, and by three great-grandchildren as well as by his sister Lois Moore of Orleans and his sister-in-law Rachel Magoon of Maryland and by his nieces and nephew. He was predeceased by his brothers Alton and Richard Magoon.A memorial service will be held at 11 a.m. on Saturday, September 3, 2011 at the Curtis-Britch-Converse-Rushford Funeral Home, 4670 Darling Hill Road, Newport. Friends may call at the funeral home on Saturday, September 3, 2011 from 10 a.m. until the hour of the funeral. Interment will be at the convenience of the family. Should friends desire, contributions in his memory may be made to North Country Hospital Auxiliary, in care of Merrilyn Barry, 189 Prouty Drive, Newport, VT 05855. On-line condolences may be sent to the family through the funeral home website at www.curtis-britch-converse-rushford.com. Arrangements are entrusted to the care of Curtis-Britch-Converse-Rushford Funeral Home, locally family owned and operated.